Recaps & Stats of all Swiss Games in WJC

By Christian Steven Schaub

April 27th, 2000

Game 1 – SWEDEN BASH LOUSY SWISS

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Switzerland got of to a good start in front of the home crowd. Sweden got an early opening goal through power play by Jungbeck, but the hosts reacted quickly! Monnet notched the first Swiss goal in these championships just 2 minutes later. From then on the home team was closer to the lead than their Nordic opponents.

But Martin Samuelsson had something against these annoying Swiss and recorded a shorthander at beginning of the 2nd. The game turned to Swedens favour and the Swiss started to make everything wrong one possibly can: defenders didn’t move up, forwards forgot to backcheck, bad passing, orientation problems in own slot or just pure lack of concentration! Two quick goals in the 6th minute sealed their fate and gave Sweden a comfortable win!

Luckily the Swiss will face the inferior Ukrainians (18-1 loss against Russia in opener) tomorrow. Hopefully it will bring back the spirit and put the team back on track.

Game 2 – SWISS BLAST UKRAINE, GET SWEDEN OUT OF THEIR HEADS

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Switzerland needed some soothing after losing their World Championship opener against Sweden by 8-2. And Ukraine was the right opponent get the disappointment out of their heads.

The Swiss dominated their Ukrainian counterparts from the beginning. No pressure in the slot in front of poor Chernenko and elementary individual mistakes made scoring easy for the Swiss team. Helfenstein’s short-handed goal reflects as good example: the Ukrainian defender Borienko fell without pressure in front of the net and the Swiss no. 27 would have had time to take drink before he netted it!

But not everything was sunshine: Swiss left wing Paul Savary left the game with a shoulder injury and will miss the remainder of the tournament.

Game 3 – BEATING ARCHRIVALS IS HARD WORK, BUT FUN

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Switzerland against Germany is like Canada against the USA: pure archrivalry and losing is not allowed! Especially when the win seals your spot in the medal round and sends them opponents down into the relegation round!

Switzerland had some problems in the 1st period with the hard hitting style of Germany. The Swiss then took control in the 2nd with their skating and technical abilities. Although Steingross equalised the Swiss opener by Helfenstein, it didn’t change a thing. The Swiss kept their patience and shortly after Métrailler marked 2-1!

It was a hectic and heated game but it never turned foul. The Germans punished themselves in the 3rd period with too many penalties and eventually Camenzind sealed the Swiss victory with his power play goal.

Game 4 – TWO GOAL DEFICIT NO HANDICAP FOR SWISS, GRAB 2ND PLACE IN GROUP A

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The Swiss got their first ever victory against the Czech Republic, by rallying back from a 2-0 deficit. That earned them 2nd place in Group A, which gives them Slovakia instead of Finland in the quarter-finals.

Netik and Nedorost gave the Czechs a comfortable lead in the 1st period. But Swiss crack Helfenstein replied 46 seconds after the 2nd Czech goal with the 1st Swiss power play goal. This was the ignition for a great comeback. Swiss netminder Matthias Schoder kept his team in the game with miraculous saves. In addition the Swiss impressed with their patience, stamina and fighting spirit.

The other key factor was the deadly power play. Switzerland scored all 3 goal on the power play. Gautschi and Bärtschi blasted home the two crucial goals in the middle of the last period and secured the host nation a 3-2 victory!

Quarter-Final – SWISS SHUTOUT SLOVAKIA, ADVANCE TO SEMI-FINAL

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The Swiss U-18 Junior National Team qualified itself for the semi-final against Russia with a disciplined game against Slovakia. The Swiss win was undisputed and well deserved. The main difference between two squads with two potential top draft picks (Helfenstein – SUI, Gaborik – SVK) was, that Switzerland played as a team, while the players on the Slovakian team where more interested in their personal showing in front of the scouts. Besides that, Slovakia was punished for playing ultra defensively and with no forechecking.

The game really got under way in middle of the 1st. The Swiss laid of their nervousness and carefulness and started their aggressive forechecking. They were also capable of shutting down the Slovakian transition game. Camichel nearly tallied the first goal of the game in the 15th minute, but was denied by the post. But it was only the start for a rough afternoon for the Slovakian goalie Budaj, who was playing for the injured Hamerlik.

Switzerland was rewarded for their patience and fighting spirit at 11:38 in the 2nd period. Julien Turler scooped the puck off two Slovakian defencemen behind the net . Deny Bärtschi one-timed the delivery for his second game winning goal of the tournament. Slovakia tried to respond, but Swiss goalie Schoder robbed them their rare chances with his reflexes, his agility and his positioning.

The beginning of 3rd period saw a flying Swiss team and Monnet conserved the lead with the 2-0. A great individual effort by him: picking up a Helfenstein pass, powering himself through on the left wing and wristing it passed Budaj from the slot. Then Sven Helfenstein got a breakaway 2 minutes later. By showing off his speed and technical skills, he “iced” Budaj on the 1 on 1. The win was perfect and the only objective left was, to give Schoder his well earned shutout.

It was hard to pick a best player on an solid Swiss team. The IIHF officials honoured it to the fighting spirit of Beat Gerber, but they could have rewarded it to the energy of Duri Camichel, the sniper skills of Thibaut Monnet, the speed of Sven Helfenstein, the reach of Thomas Nüssli, the cleverness of Fabian Sutter or the glove of Matthias Schoder.

To conclude: the match-up between Gaborik and Helfenstein clearly ended in favour of the Swiss prospect. Helfenstein was everywhere and was dangerous throughout the game. Gaborik instead just showed his skills once or twice. His lack-lustre performance defensively was punished by the top Swiss line Helfenstein-Camichel-Monnet with a minus 2 stat. The Slovakian coach Jozef Frühauf (i.e. father of prospect Peter Frühauf) had just one comment on that: “Ask the scouts for the reason”…….

Semi-Final – STRONG SPUTNIK FINISH KILLS SWISS DREAMS

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Switzerland were on the verge of pulling of the biggest upset in WJC recent history against Russia, but their efforts were denied by a strong Sputnik finish.

The host country got away on strong note. They showed gooorganizationon, high technical play and tactical maturity, but their main weapon was the fighting spirit. Besides that, the Swiss weren’t impressed by the Russian high speed hockey. They were able to shut it down and if not, their defence was ready for the rebounds in the slot. The Swiss not only got respect from their opponents but they also started to confuse them. The Russian disorientation got to a humorous point, when Deny Bärtschi cleverly dodged two Russian defencemen and they crashed into each other.

Camichel finally put the Swiss on the scoreboard in the 2nd period. Helfenstein set up the play and was denied by sliding defencemen and Russian goalie Medvedev. Camichel got the rebound and looped it into the net over the lying Russian players. The 1st Swiss line Helfenstein-Camichel-Monnet proved again to be one of the top combinationworldwidede (they got out of the game with +1 stat).

Unfortunately they weren’t able to convert their scoring opportunities for the decisive 2nd goal. Apart from that the tournament stress started to take its toll: fatigue! At the end of the 2nd period the Swiss survived a five minutes short handed, but it cost them dearly.

In the 3rd period they were worn out and couldn’t keep up their game. Swiss goalie Matthias Schoder was finally beaten again after 152 minutes. Rouslan Zainoulline notched the equalizer for Russia at 5:06 in the 3rd with Alexander Svitov assisting. Especially the technically strong power forward Svitov started to resurge the much battered Russian. The hosts weren’t able to stop him and by assisting Chastine on the 2nd goal in the middle of the 3rd period, he finally broke the Swiss resistance. Egor Chastine the tallied Russian goal no. 3 in the same “Gretzky” manner as he scored his first: coming from behind the net with speed into the slot and then taking a precise wrist shot. Jakoubov then wrapped it up with the 4th goal in the last minute of the game.

To sum it up: the Swiss youngster demonstrated that the recent showings of Swiss Junior National Teams in World Championships isn’t just a breeze, it’s got basis! Although they were disappointed after the game, they can be proud. They were the first team to score the opening goal against this extraordinary Russian team in the tournament. Two days later the Finns were the second…..and they are now the world champions!

Bronze Medal Game – DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SWEDES AND SWISS IS SIX AGAIN

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The Bronze Medal game was over after 46 seconds into the 2nd period. Team Sweden scored two goals in that time span to lift the tally up to 5-1. Switzerland was inferior throughout the whole game. The Nordic players were faster, bigger and stronger than their Swiss counterparts. It proved again, that the Swedes are an opponent no Swiss National Team likes to play; neither juniors nor seniors!

The expectations were high after the semi-final loss to the Russians and the Swiss wanted the Bronze. But the loss of energy and thdisappointmentnt was evident. Switzerland was capable to reply to the goal Wästlund scored for Sweden early in the 1st . Defencemen Joel Fröhlicher tallied the equalizer on a great solo effort. Normally this would have the host nation some moral, but they were flat.

The game started to turone-sideded after Team Sweden went ahead again at 16:40. The decision fell, when the Swedes marked 3 goals in a period of 54 seconds: the 3-1 on a power play 8 seconds before the end of the 1st , the 4-1 20 seconds and the 5-1 46 seconds into the 2nd! The rest of game was more of getting it over with.